A Funny Thing HappenedAnd I Fell On My Face
by Agents K and B
Summary: At St. Micheal's School for the Arts, History Club was never on the top of the list for fundings. But what happens when the administration tries to abolish it? (Challenge Fic) (Casting Call Closed)
1. Casting Call

A Funny Thing Happened...And I Fell on my Face.  
  
By Kelly and Birdy  
  
THE CHALLENGE:  
  
To write a semi-decent multi-chapter fanfiction involving: Modern-Day newsies, BOTTLED WaTER, SchNitzel, Apple strudel, and twins. Also: RENT must be mentioned in any way, shape, or form at least twice a chapter, and there must be a modern-day swing club.  
  
Not to mention the Casting Call. Send in!  
  
Summary:  
  
At St. Micheal's School for the Arts, History Club was never on the top of the list for fundings. But what happens when the administration tries to abolish it? (Challenge Fic) (Casting Call Inside!)  
  
Okay, onto the stuff that you care about... THE CASTING CALL. Email all requests for characters to sillytwinnies@yahoo.com :-D Your character doesn't have to be in history club, we'll find something relevant for them to do *wink*  
  
Name:  
  
Nickname (if they have one, please specify if they use this name all the time, or occasionally):  
  
Age:  
  
Gender:  
  
School Year/Grade:  
  
Physical Description:  
  
Mental Capabilities:  
  
History Club or Not?:  
  
Three Favourite Newsies:  
  
School Activities/Interests:  
  
Attitude towards History Club:  
  
(If in History Club)  
  
Favourite Time Period:  
  
Favourite Historical Figure:  
  
Any other Historical quirks they have (i.e. randomly quoting a historical figure):  
  
Thanks yall!  
  
We hope to get your emails to help us write this, because it oughta be great fun!  
  
Cheers,  
  
Kelly and Birdy 


	2. Chapter 1

A Funny Thing Happened and I Fell on My Face  
  
Chapter One: Itey  
  
After a long day at an arts-based high school, where competition was nerve- wracking between each fine art, an afternoon of History club sounded GREAT to me. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why anyone wouldn't want to be in HC with us, I mean, it's not like we sit around all day and read books! Okay, sometimes, but only when we're at home and there's nothing else to do.  
  
First of all, History Club isn't really a History Club at Saint Michael's. History Club is just a place for all of us "nerds" to get together and hang out, though we do all have our common love of history, rarely is it a topic at our bi-weekly meetings (solely chaperoned by the grown-into-her-desk- chair Mrs. Banks.). So far, only Derby, her boyfriend, Dutchy (who I'm sure wasn't fully into history at all, and only came for Derby's sake) were flirting in the corner, her sitting on his lap and stealing his glasses. Ally Hart was telling an uninterested Holiday Blackett about Rudolf Muller, until Derby pointed out that Rudolf had been rather handsome, and Dutchy stole his glasses back.  
  
And then Sapphy walked in. I could hardly contain myself. She had such beautiful strawberry blonde hair. I got a whiff of her shampoo as she walked by, saying "Hey Itey," to me. Oh, Love is the most beautiful of dreams and worst of nightmares (1). I managed to mutter a "Hey" in return before landing myself in a seat. It was then that she suddenly burst out singing, "LA VIE BOHEME!"  
  
Derby grinned and jumped up, and much to Dutchy's now empty lap's dismay, starting a sing-a-long from RENT, "To days of inspiration, playing hooky, making something out of nothing..." The song continued between Sapphy and Derby until Dutchy pulled Derby over into a kiss, gaining a few either "ew"'s or "aw"'s from the growing number of onlookers.  
  
"Dut-chy." She said accusingly, as if to tell him he was a bit out of line, but she was still smiling.  
  
I had to grin at this. That's how Derby was, always wanting to keep a pristine reputation. She really was an interesting person if you get right down to it. I saw her for awhile in seventh. We had some good times back then.  
  
"Say," I said, just as Lute was walking in, my best friend Snitch trailing behind her, trying to catch of whiff of Lute's shampoo without her noticing (Snitch has had a crush on Lute for months now, he just won't admit it to anyone... except me.), "How about we call this meeting to 'Order'." I suggested, which was followed up by Ally laughing at me, Dutchy and Derby returning to their game of "Catch Dutchy's Glasses".  
  
"Okay so um," I continued, I was President of the club (mostly because I was a Junior, and none of the seniors wanted to be, they thought it was too big of a "responsibility" for them, trying to get all their credits in and such, though I didn't see much responsibility to attempting to calling a meeting to order to try to get this bunch of miscreants to calm down). Slowly, they quieted, I counted the heads in the room. Sixteen. It wasn't an unusually large number, yet not as many as I would have liked. Drama club had a hundred and sixteen members. We were lucky to get seventeen. Such is life, "Who wants to uh... open a discussion?"  
  
I saw an evil grin creep across Skittery's face for a moment, but I frowned, "That has something to do with History." Skittery frowned and shut up, glancing over at Harley, grinning, in fact, sort of goofily.  
  
Ally grinned ear to ear and opened her mouth, "Rudolf's birthday is in a week!"  
  
Derby grinned, "Give him my best wishes then, Ally Cat!" Only Ally's good friends called her 'Ally Cat', and to be frank, "good friends" INCLUDED the infamous Derby Brady, not that there was any reason for Derby being "infamous", she was as innocent as a lamb. To be quite honest, I do believe she still thinks that the stork brought her.  
  
"Yeah, I was thinking about having a party. You know..just a Luftwaffe ace party. We could all wear Luftwaffe clothes and sing Luftwaffe songs and have a Rudolf cake..," Ally trailed off. I grinned. "Yes, that WOULD be fun, I'm sure."  
  
I looked around the room at everyone's faces, seeing if anyone could possibly think of something to converse about.  
  
"Civil War!" Derby called out, raising her hand after she said it. I nodded, and Derby grinned as she leaned back on Dutchy. "Okay, what about the Civil War?" I asked. Before Derby could answer, a loud 'BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!' sounded through the halls, and the students started shuffling out of the room. "Fire drill," Ally was heard muttering under her breath, and she quickly ran over to walk out with Derby and Dutchy. I sighed and stood up, turning out the light as I, the last one, walked out the door. The only good thing about fire drills, was..  
  
Going outside. It was a nice day, and walking down the hall behind Sapphy made it even nicer. I didn't notice that I was inching closer and closer to her, until she turned around and smiled. "Oh, hello Itey!" she said, and I blushed before taking a step back. "Sorry," I apologized, and she just grinned before turning back around.  
  
When we walked outside, I couldn't help but notice the light shining through her hair, and I completely ignored the History Club teacher when she called my name during role call. "Itey?" she asked again, and I snapped to attention. "Here," I called over to her, before looking around the yard at the other students.  
  
Dutchy had his arm around Derby's waist, and Ally was talking to Derby about something or another, probably either Rudolf Muller or the Civil War. I heard someone call my name, and I turned around. It was Jack, and he snuck over from his group. "Hey, who woulda thought we'd have a fire drill today? We just had the the other day," he grinned. I couldn't help but smile; Jack had that effect on people.  
  
Students were starting to file back into the school, so he gave us all a quick wave before jogging back over to his group. The History Club soon followed, and I was sort of frustrated to see that we only had about ten minutes left in the club before the next period. We filed back into the classroom, and we all went back to where we were sitting before, as if they were our assigned seats or something.  
  
"So what were we talking about?" Snitch asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Lute and... everyone else. Derby and Ally were about to open their mouths, but Snitch stopped them, "BESIDES the Civil War or Rudolf Muller?"  
  
I raised my eyebrows. I didn't think it was possible for us to carry on a historical conversation without having Stonewall Jackson or Rudolf Muller thrown into it somehow.  
  
"I suppose we could talk about..." Dutchy paused, "The French Revolution?"  
  
Derby grimaced, "Ew... Guillotines make me ill."  
  
"I propose," Specs volunteered, "That we don't talk about history at all. And that we talk about how Snitchy-Boy keeps eyeing Lute over there."  
  
Snitch turned a deep shade of purple, as did Lute. Honestly, I was taken aback; Specs didn't usually say things that... random. In fact, Specs was probably the most normal and least forward of the HC members. He laughed, as did everyone else after a moment of Snitch burying his face in his hands.  
  
After our five minute laughing session (which in fact, turned into another little game of "Steal Dutchy's Glasses... Then make out with him while he can't see you." For Dutchy and Derby), we resumed what WOULD have been our meeting. Until gossip took over.  
  
"So, Ally Cat," David was saying, "Have you managed to land that Anthony character yet?"  
  
Ally blushed. "He prefers 'Racetrack', and I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted.  
  
A smile slowly crept across David's face. "So you ARE an item, then?" he asked innocently, which provoked another round of laughter from the group. Ally blushed again and hid her head behind her notebook, and Dutchy and Derby resumed their cuddling.  
  
"So..um," Snitch was saying to Lute, who was still fighting down her blush from earlier. Specs was looking out the window thoughtfully, and a somewhat neutral quiet had fallen over everyone.  
  
I cleared my throat, and tapped my leg absentmindedly as I tried to think of a topic for everyone. "How about cowboys and Indians?" David suggested, and Snitch stuck his tongue out at him. "Boring. Like we don't learn about that every second in History class." David looked exasperated. "Then what do you suggest we talk about?" he asked, and Snitch shrugged as he went back to trying to steal glances of Lute.  
  
"How about-," I was going to suggest the American Revolution, when the bell rang. The others started picking up their books and shuffling out. Lute walked out, the light shining off of her hair as she walked under a particularly bright one, and Snitch followed in pursuit. Dutchy put his arm around Derby's shoulder and they headed out, with Ally walking next to Derby.  
  
Snitch and Lute headed off to band. Specs was off to his Calc. class. Saphhy, Irish (who somehow managed to join us after the fire drill after her Smartass, Mayfly, Derby and Ally had lunch period, and Dutchy had his sketch classes, so he (to clean things up) bid his goodbyes to Derby and went on to the fourth floor of the building. I, personally, ate lunch with the girls, Skittery, Blink, and David.  
  
We sat down with our trays of mush at our usual round table.  
  
"Who wants my fries?" Derby announced, "Whoever gets them gets to help me with Geometry though, so ye be warned!"  
  
I shook my head, Derby was never good at math, not that any of us but Specs were real geniuses at it. I ended up taking her fries, but she just took my chicken patty in exchange, instead of mathematical help.  
  
Soon, we were engaged in a conversation about the school's latest addition: The athletics boosters. It wasn't a real surprise to any of us, every school had athletics, we just wished ours didn't. Personally, I found it all too embarrassing.  
  
"What do our football players need boosters for any way?" Blink pointed out, trying the best he could to casually slip his fingers over Mayfly's, who grinned and pretended not to notice.  
  
Ally spoke up, "It's just the stupid rich kids' parents who only go here because they bribed the board to let them in, they just want to take away money from the programs the school was actually set up for!"  
  
"Which reminds me," I butted in, "We need to start a fundraiser to buy those posters we were gonna get for HC."  
  
Skittery raised his eyebrow at me, "Don't the school cover that?"  
  
"Doesn't, Skittery, Doesn't," Derby corrected.  
  
"Grammar Nazi." Skittery hissed at her. Derby shrugged. "They cut the funding for HC short this year, di'n't they, Ites?" She said, taking another bite of her sandwich, I nodded, "For that new athletic thingamabobber, like Ally Cat said."  
  
Smartass shrugged, "It's not like we NEEDED new posters is it?"  
  
I raised an eyebrow at her, "No, we didn't NEED them, per-"  
  
"Then what's all the fuss about?"  
  
"Well, it would just be nice... to have new posters."  
  
"How about we change the conversation before Itey and Smartass bite each others heads off, alright?" David said, looking up from his lunch.  
  
"Oh!" Derby practically jumped out of her seat, "Remember how I told you I might go down to Atlanta to see Stone Mountain? I GET TO GO." She grinned maniacally.  
  
"No fair!" Smartass shrieked. Of course, leave it to the Civil War experts to go off about some carving in a mountain.  
  
Ally grinned. "Cool! Take lots of pictures! I wish I could find a way to go." She gave a mock pout, then bit into a french fry before standing up. "I'm going to get some bottled water, does anyone need anything while I'm up?" she asked.  
  
David halfway raised his hand in the air. "Can you get me another napkin, please? These fries are really greasy." Ally grinned and walked off to get her water and some napkins for David.  
  
Derby took a drink of her own bottled water. "I say we sell cookies. Or, we could sell cookbooks. I have a REALLY good recipe for schnitzel!" she said, and Skittery stifled a laugh. She looked at him. "What?" she asked, looking a tad annoyed, and he shrugged. "I was just thinking about something that I read. It was this joke, about how some people talk, and it said that the German way of 'ghetto-talking', would be 'fo schnitzel'," he explained. David cracked up, and Kid cracked a smile.  
  
"Oh geez," Derby rolled her eyes, and Ally walked back with her bottle of water, and a handful of napkins. "Hey, thanks!" David said, as he took the napkins and proceeded to soak up the grease from his fries.  
  
Ally sat down in her seat and took a long drink of her water, before putting it down and looking at Derby. "What are you doing after school? You know that documentary pack that I bought off of Ebay? Well, there's this really cool documentary about the Civil War in it, and you could come over sometime and watch it if you want."  
  
Derby grinned. "I'll have to see! I thought I had something to do..but maybe not. That WOULD be fun!"  
  
Ally was about to say something else, but was interrupted when none other than Anthony 'Racetrack' Higgins came over. "What's goin' on?" he asked, as he scooted between Derby and Ally.  
  
I grinned and took a bite of my chicken sandwich as I waited for Race to ask Ally out, or vice versa. It was obvious that they liked each other, but they both seemed to be denying it. Luckily, we all had Kid Blink to break the ice.  
  
"Hey Race, you still single?" he asked.  
  
Racetrack gave him a strange look. "Uhh..yeah. Why?" he asked, and Kid shrugged. "I heard that Ally's also single," he said emotionlessly. Racetrack slowly nodded his head and raised an eyebrow at Kid.  
  
"I feel bad for you, sitting by him," he joked to Ally, then grinned at Kid, so that he would know that Race was joking. Kid lightly kicked Race under the table, and soon, they had a full-out kicking war.  
  
"Hey Race, I thought that you said that you were coming right back over?" a voice said, and Jack stuck his head next to Race's.  
  
"I'll be back over, I'll be back over," Racetrack said, and he gave Kid Blink a final kick before turning around to face Jack.  
  
"Did you..ask her yet?" Jack was heard whispering into Race's ear, and Race blushed. "Shut UP," he hissed, and Jack nodded knowingly. "So, you HAVEN'T." He shrugged. "I'll catch you guys later, I have to go finish my apple strudel before the bell rings." He grinned. "Catch ya on the flipside."  
  
I looked at my watch and realized that it was true; the bell would be ringing in less than ten minutes, so I dug into my 'golden corn', which looked more like something that was dug up out of a World War I ration.  
  
"Last night, I had a dream-" David started.  
  
"I found myself in a desert called CYBERLAND!" Derby and Sapphy sang loudly, and David shook his head. "No! Not Rent!" he pleaded. Derby and Sapphy grinned.  
  
"But, you set yourself up for that one!" Derby protested jokingly. David rolled his eyes.  
  
"What about your dream?" Ally Cat asked him, and he shrugged. "It was about that newsboy strike, you know, the one in 1899? I was reading up on it the other day, and I had this dream that I was a part of it. I was an organizer or something." He laughed.  
  
Ally grinned. "You should write a book about it--a historical fiction about the newsboy strike. I bet it'd sell."  
  
David smiled. "You think?" Ally grinned.  
  
"Yeah! We should have a fiction-writing contest. And the winner should get a mention in the paper, I could try to arrange that since I'm part of it!" she declared.  
  
Race cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm a pretty good writer. I'll have to show you, uh, some of my work." He nodded at Ally, and Kid Blink stifled his laughter. Race glared at him.  
  
"What?" he asked. Kid shook his head.  
  
"Oh nothing. Just..the only person who's ever really complimented your 'work' was your mother!" he laughed wildly, and Racetrack narrowed his eyes at him again before turning back to Ally.  
  
Ally smiled. "Sure, I'd love to see some of your work!" she said, and Racetrack grinned. "Okay. I'll bring some tomorrow or something." He stood up and stretched.  
  
"It was great, but I have to get back over to Jack before he has a heart attack. I'll catch ya on the wildside." He winked at Ally before jogging back over to his table.  
  
I had just finished my french fries, when the bell rang. 


End file.
